Tales of Orelia
About
Inspired by games like The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow (1996), Tales of Orelia leans into retro charm, with pixel art, a limited but expressive tile set, engaging quests, immersive dungeons, and a sprawling world made up of four distinct biomes for players to explore.
Project Info
Role(s): Art Lead, Sound Designer, QA Tester, Video Editor
Team Size: 23
Timeline: Sept 2019 - Dec 2019
Engine & Tools: Unity (C#), Aseprite, OpenMPT
Tags: 2D, Action, Adventure, Combat, Fantasy, RPG
Updated: Mar, 2026
Tales of Orelia was developed during the Mobile Applications (CGP605) module of my undergraduate degree in Computer Games (Indie) at Southampton Solent University. Inspired by classic titles such as The Legend of Zelda (1986), the game was created by a 23-person team operating under the fictional studio name, Lazy Tank Studios.
The project presented a unique challenge: to create a fully playable retro-style game under 50KB, which required extensive optimisation across code, art, and audio. In Tales of Orelia, players take on the role of an explorer travelling across a vast world made up of different biomes. Along the way, they explore dungeons, defeat enemies, collect loot, and take part in quests inspired by classic RPGs.
My roles on the project included Art Lead, Sound Designer, QA Tester, and Video Editor. It was a memorable project that taught me a great deal about collaboration, particularly the challenges and rewards that come with working in larger development teams.
On this project, I contributed as Art Lead, Sound Designer, QA Tester, and Video Editor. As Art Lead, I managed the art department, overseeing a team of five students. My responsibilities included delegating tasks, reviewing the team’s weekly progress, and ensuring the visual direction of the project stayed consistent. I also collaborated closely with other studio leads, representing the art department in meetings and contributing to wider strategic discussions. Alongside this, I designed the studio’s logo, helped lead the marketing efforts, and established a core visual identity for the game.
In my role as Sound Designer, I created over 63 retro-inspired sound effects using OpenMPT, with more than 50 converted into synthesised sounds both in-house and within Unity. I also optimised audio samples to meet the strict 50KB asset size limit, ensuring efficient performance without sacrificing quality. Throughout development, I worked closely with the programming team to integrate sound effects smoothly into the game.
As a QA Tester, I produced an in-depth post-mortem report, analysing the project’s successes and identifying areas for improvement. Finally, as a Video Editor, I co-created two promotional trailers (a gameplay trailer and a teaser), contributing to storyboarding, editing, and final polishing in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. I also captured a set of high-quality “beauty shots” to help showcase the game on its itch.io page.
This project taught me a great deal about both collaboration and optimisation. It was my first experience working on a project with more than 20 people involved, and that naturally brought new challenges. Alongside my responsibilities as Art Lead, there were moments where the team faced conflicts, particularly when ideas weren’t always heard or when some team members struggled to meet the strict file-size limitations for their work.
The challenge of creating a game under 50KB made it clear that success depended heavily on collaboration. Every department had to support one another and share ways to optimise their work, whether that was reducing asset sizes, simplifying designs, or finding creative technical solutions.
Supporting the Team
Looking back, if I were to approach the project again, I would likely focus entirely on the Art Lead role rather than taking on additional responsibilities as Sound Designer, Video Editor, and QA Tester. Doing so would have allowed me to dedicate more time to supporting other team members and helping departments overcome the challenges they faced throughout development.
While no single person can remove all tension from a project, I did feel that additional support across the team could have helped during the final stages of the project, when stress levels were at their highest. Maintaining morale is incredibly important in game development; creating games is hard enough without unnecessary friction within the team.
Overall, I’m very grateful for the experience and look back on it fondly. It taught me a great deal about team dynamics, leadership, and the importance of maintaining a supportive environment throughout development.
